Snopes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

**Urban Legends Reference Pages (snopes.com)**

URL	http://www.snopes.com/
Commercial?	No
Type of site	Reference pages
Registration	Only required on forums
Owner	Barbara and David P. Mikkelson
Created by	Barbara and David P. Mikkelson

The Urban Legends Reference Pages, also known as snopes.com, is a website dedicated to determining the truth about many urban legends, Internet rumors, email forwards, and other such stories of uncertain or questionable origin. Snopes is run by Barbara and David Mikkelson, a couple from California who married after meeting on the newsgroup alt.folklore.urban. The couple also founded the San Fernando Valley Folklore Society, who were credited as the owners of the site until 2005. [1] The site is organized according to topic and includes a messageboard where questionable stories and pictures may be posted.

1 Main site
2 Forums
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Main site

Snopes aims to debunk or confirm widely spread urban legends. The site is referenced by numerous other sites, directing people to more information about various hoaxes, especially in regard to chain e-mails. Although they research their topics heavily and provide references when possible, not all of their sources (especially those which are personal interviews, phone calls, or e-mails) are fully verifiable. Where appropriate, pages are generally marked "undetermined" or "unverifiable" if the Mikkelsons feel there is not enough evidence to either support or disprove a given claim.

The site is sometimes confused with The AFU and Urban Legends Archive [2], a similar site run by the denizens of alt.folklore.urban, which houses that newsgroup's FAQ.

The Mikkelsons have stressed the reference portion of the name Urban Legends Reference Pages, indicating that their intention is not merely to dismiss or confirm misconceptions and rumors but to provide evidence for such debunkings and confirmations as well.^[1] In an attempt to demonstrate the perils of over-reliance on authority, the Mikkelsons created a series of made-up urban folklore tales which they termed The Repository of Lost Legends.^[2] (The name was chosen for its acronym, T.R.O.L.L.) One fictional legend averred that the children's nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence" was really a coded reference used by pirates to recruit members. (This parodied a real false legend surrounding "Ring Around the Rosie"'s link to the bubonic plague.) Although the creators were sure that no one could believe a tale so ridiculous – and had added a link^[3] at the bottom of the page to another page explaining the hoax, and a message with the ratings saying "Note: Any relationship between these ratings and reality is purely coincidental." – eventually the legend was featured as true on an urban legends board-game and TV show.^[4] Whether this meant their plan backfired or succeeded is in the eye of the beholder.

The name snopes comes from the name of a family in the works of writer William Faulkner.^[5]

[edit] Forums

The ULRP has a reasonably active forums community, its users referring to themselves as "snopesters". David and Barbara Mikkelson are active participants, with David going by the name "snopes" (lowercase s) and Barbara going simply as "Barbara".

The forums have a variety of subforums, which are split between discussion of urban legends and general talk threads. The current forums have been around since December 2006 and are powered by vBulletin. Before that, there have been some style of forum since the site's debut.